Philanthropy Education

A Legacy of Giving is an innovative academic service learning program under Austin Community Foundation (ACF), a 501(c)(3) public charity. Unlike traditional direct service charities, Legacy teaches children through academic service learning to become effective community trustees, thereby setting the stage for philanthropic activity now and in the future.

Legacy staff consists of seasoned educators and curriculum writers who develop lessons that integrate current TEKS into our overall approach to teach philanthropy in a way that empowers students and makes them excited to learn and teachers excited to teach. We encourage integration of all core subjects into our study of philanthropy.

Students learn what a community is, what a philanthropist is, how to research a social concern, how to advocate for others, how to run a service project, and how to analyze and reflect upon the results. Our goal is to equip students with academic vocabulary words so they are familiar with terms such as “community” and “civic engagement.” We discuss the difference between a “want” and a “need,” the meaning of “food insecurity,” and the many issues related to poverty. 

A Legacy of Giving’s framework and activities support Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum. There is a five-step process for guiding students through the Legacy program.

1. Learn: In a multi-media assembly, the Legacy staff will present an academic foundation for the inquiry and volunteer work that students will undertake during the semester. Students will learn about philanthropy, which we define as using our time, talent, and treasure for the common good. The Legacy program will introduce students to philanthropic role models from history and the modern day. We will then provide young people with a solid grasp on the community problem they will address.

2. Internalize: Students will learn that hunger has many faces and that hunger looks different in many communities. They will discover what food insecurity means and why one out of four young people in Central Texas are hungry. They will also become familiar with hunger locally, statewide, nationwide, and worldwide, developing a personal understanding as to why hunger exists.

3. Advocate: Teachers will receive a PowerPoint lesson during the Teacher Orientation. Teachers will deliver the advocacy lesson following the assembly. This lesson is designed to inspire students to use their voices to speak out for a cause. It will introduce students to historical and contemporary role models who have successfully advocated for change.  Following this lesson, teachers will challenge students to develop a plan to advocate for individuals in need. In the fall, students will collect coats and cans for the homeless and hungry people in their communities. In the past, Legacy student advocacy plans have included Facebook campaigns, trick-or-treating for cans, and flash mobs for coats. (A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act [such as a dance] for a brief time, then disperse.)

4. Act: Students will participate in both school-wide and community-wide service events. Our community-wide events bring together young people from throughout Austin to work as a youth movement for change. This fall, empty storage PODS (Portable On Demand Storage) will be delivered to Legacy campuses. The students’ challenge will be to fill the PODS with coats and cans. At the end of their campus philanthropy campaign, teachers will select ten student representatives to participate in the Day of Service on Wednesday, November 23rd, when the school’s POD will be emptied into the Capital Area Food Bank.

5. Reflect: The last step in the Legacy process will be for students to write or discuss the differences that they have made in their communities. What worked? What didn’t? How do they feel? How can they use what they learned in this process to create possible changes in their community? Teachers will receive this lesson on PowerPoint at the Teacher Orientation. Legacy believes that, “if you want the students to know it counts, you need to count it.” That’s why we will count the number of coats and the pounds of food that students collect, so that during the reflection teachers can celebrate how many meals each individual school provided to those in need and how many meals were served as a result of the Austin Legacy youth community working together.